Lords Making Sand Castles
by The Wandering Swordsman
Summary: For the forum I joined. The lords of the Sea gathered on a small island to start a sand castle building contest. Mentions of MihawkxZoro. Rated M to be on the safe side.


**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.**

Message from the All Great DoFlamingo  
A Day to Relax your Stressful Duties  
Sail over to Sunara Island to see what is in stored.  
Bring a partner if you wish.

A message bird with familiar pointy shades flew into the open windows and left a message. Once it finished its job, it fluttered back into the vast ocean to reunite with its owner. Five who received the messages, read it, reread it, and with a skeptical mind they set off to the island it told them to go.

The Sunara Island was a tiny island, so tiny on the map its name covered the island. While the middle was covered in lush greens of jungles, the surrounding part of this land was mostly sand, ten miles of it. It was untouched by any human hands until now.

The five members who were called: Juraquille Mihawk, Boa Hancock, Bartholomew Kuma, Gecko Moria, and Jinbei. Jinbei had sailed along with Boa Hancock and the snake princess had brought Monkey D. Luffy along since it said, 'partner.' On the other hand, Juraquille Mihawk brought in his two guests, Roronoa Zoro and Perona. Perona was just going to watch since she had nothing to do at Kuraigana Island.

While the Straw Hat captain and first mate were reunited and talked about what had happened over the last few days, the five lords of the sea headed toward a large bright pink tent. Sitting under the shade sat Don Quixote Doflamingo and a surprising guest: Sir Crocodile. Two Marine soldiers were standing behind Sir Crocodile, hands behind their back and stood firm. While Doflamingo sat on a simple beach chair, Sir Crocodile sat on a royal seat with golden trims. It did not fit with the summer theme whatsoever.

"What is this all about?" Jinbei asked first.

Doflamingo snickered, "Well, I'm surprised everybody came." He waved a hand, "Look at all of this sand! I thought of a wonderful contest we could do."

"What?" Mihawk crossed his arms, "This had to be better than what I was doing."

"I see you have a visitor in your home." Doflamingo's eyes lingered over to the younger swordsman which the master swordsman glared, "Did I disrupt your time?"

"Hurry up and tell us why you called us?" Hancock lifted her leg, "The sand is getting into my feet."

"After I announce the game you'll probably have to take them off snaky baby." Doflamingo then pointed over to Crocodile, who the ex-Shichibukai began chewing his cigar, "The contest is we build a sand castle fit for Crocie! 'Course, Crocie is going to pick the winner! Every Shichibukai will have to build their own sand castle by their own or with a partner who is not a Shichibukai."

"A sand castle?_!" _

"Don't call me Crocie."

"Yes a sand castle. Isn't that a fabulous idea?"

After a few glances around Bartholomew answered in a quiet tone, "It is a good idea."

"Fabulous! I will participate in this sand castle building too so I will hand the announcer job to this marine from Section seventy-five." He handed the den-den mushi microphone over to the marine soldier while he dragged another poor Marine who was going to be forced to build the sand castle by Doflamingo's powers.

"Wait," the Marine officer from Section seventy-five interrupted, "What about Marshall Tiech? He is a Shichibukai member too."

Doflamingo stood there with the whimpering Marine trapped in his arm, "What are you talking about? There are seven here-oh." He turned to Crocodile, "You're not a Shichibukai anymore huh Crocie."

"Yes, and stop calling me Crocie."

"Oh well, forget about him." Doflamingo shooed the idea off, "Say when to start Marine boy."

"Oh okay." The Maine from Section seventy-five, which by now the author is getting tired of calling him by that name and from now he will be called Nago, "You will have four hours to build a sand castle. You can use any items you have: swords, guns, devil fruit powers, et cetera. Please, I repeat, please do not disrupt other members and destroy their castles. You will immediately be disqualified. Now on the whistle, let the sand castle building begin!"

Gecko Moria raised a hand, "Hey, what do we get?"

The whistle was centimeters close to Nago's lips, "What?"

"What do we get when one of us wins?"

"Uh, what was it again Don Quixote-sama?"

Doflamingo scratched his inner ear with his finger, "Eh, the winner gets a break from the Marine headquarter crap for a month."

"Hm, seems reasonable." All of them mumbled, even though they really didn't go help around the Marine Headquarters as much, unless in a case of emergency.

Nago blew the whistle and all of the lords of the sea sauntered over to the wide beach.

Jinbei walked over to ask Luffy to be his partner but Hancock beat him to it, "Luffy," she asked in a kind voice, "Will you be my partner and build a sand castle with me?"

Luffy was standing a foot away from the ocean, running away from the approaching waves. The ghost princess was near the shore too, except she was collecting shells. The captain was yelling as the swordsman had his own fun walking through the shallow parts of the ocean. Luffy turned away from the ocean, "I wanted to make a sand castle with Zoro..."

"No you mustn't!" she cried, "You can only make a sand castle with me!"

"Oh...okay." Luffy said and immediately was dragged away to a remote area where she and Luffy could make a sand castle together in peace.

Jinbei shrugged and walked over to somewhere close to the ocean but not so that it would hurt his sand castle.

Mihawk walked over to Zoro with much difficulty. His boots sunk deep into the sand, plus Zoro and Perona were at the edge of the ocean. Zoro walked around in the ocean water reaching up to his knees. Perona was onto the sand admiring the shells she found. "Roronoa, come. Build a sand castle with me."

Zoro stepped out of the water and handed his boots to Perona, "Since I have nothing else to do...sure."

"What should I do?" Perona asked.

"You can shade us from the sun with your umbrella." Mihawk offered.

Perona thought about it for a moment before walking after them, "Okay."

Minutes later, each of the members were in their own spaces, taking as much sand as they could possibly get, and began building. Everyone seemed to be having fun except the judge Sir Crocodile who had to stay sitting in the seat for four straight hours. Nago had the bigger, important job to watch over the contestants and alert when the time ends.

-.-.-

An hour later, there was progress among on each of the groups. Curious and with the den-den mushi microphone in hand, he wandered off to see what the others were doing. Sir Crocodile crushed his third cigar and decided to take a nap.

On Boa Hancock and Monkey D. Luffy's team, they both made a huge blobby block of moist sand. Nago handed the den-den mushi over toward Luffy, "So...how is this going to be a castle?"

"We're going to make a really tall mountain and then I'll punch it down, sculpting into the greatest castle in the world!" Luffy announced proudly toward the snail.

While Luffy was announcing, Hancock had her hands close to her chest. She closed her eyes and a blush appeared on her cheeks. _While we were building this mountain, his and my hand touched! My hand! Ah, I think I am going to faint if he does it one more time!_

"Oi, Hancock! Come on!" She opened her eyes to see Luffy and then fainted again from hearing him call her name.

Nago smiled at the pair and walked a good ten meters to get to the other team.

Juraquille Mihawk and Roronoa Zoro were building in the same technique as Luffy except it was perfectly square. It towered over Nago by a few feet, "Whoa, that is amazing Juraquille-sama."

Mihawk stared up at the block, "After this we're going to cut and carve it."

"That is a good idea." Nago listened to the repeated strategy and moved on to the next contestant, leaving the two swordsmen work.

"Should we start carving? It might take us three hours to carve-Hey!" Zoro swatted Mihawk's hand away from his hip, "Not now!"

"Why?" Mihawk's hand slithered back to Zoro's waistband of his pants, "That Marine won't come around anymore...and probably sand man might like a square castle." He pulled Zoro down onto the sand, "Just a quick one?"

Zoro rolled his eyes and then pulled Mihawk's lips into his, "It better be quick."

"I'm leaving." Perona replied and skipped back to the shore to collect more shells.

When Nago came to Jinbei's work station, the Shichibukai seemed to be almost done. He was using the ocean water ability to slam against the moistened sand. Nago could see the mini towers and little openings of windows. "I can't wait to see how it's going to turn out." Nago awed at the building. Jinbei smiled and continued on his work.

The marine reporter was glad that he had the announcer job. The other marine who was forced to be partners with Doflamingo had been slaved away, working on the sand castle nonstop. The marine looked exhausted as the heat pounded onto his skin. Sweat was pouring down his face and his hair matted over his head. His hands were roughened up by the hot sand. He glanced a wearily eye at Nago before returning to his working.

Doflamingo had created a shade with a large leaf and kept away from the sand castle, his fingers wiggling and the marine worked in sync. "Fu fu fu, it is going swell." Doflamingo said simply.

Gecko Moria was copying Doflamingo's idea except he was using his shadow to make the sand castle. The large man was in the jungle, snoring away. Gecko Moria's sand castle looked a bit like a horror house than a pretty castle.

Nago couldn't find Bartholomew Kuma until he saw a hole in the sand. It was perfectly square and somehow, Kuma had managed to create a sand staircase leading deeper into the earth. The marine decided to not question the intimidating man and returned back to the station.

When the last third hour had passed, Nago decided to check on them one more time before time was up.

Nago carefully walked toward the beach where Boa Hancock and Juraquille were. "They'll probably done by now-WAH!"

The sand castles were left in the same shape and form where he last seen. The people, a different story. Near the shore, Luffy and Mihawk were fighting. The master swordsman had drawn his sword and blocking all of the Gear attacks Luffy brought out. The young teen was topless and his skin was oddly bright pink and steam was gushing out from his pores. Fierceness and the urge to kill the other flared up in Luffy's eyes as he shot another 'Gear Pistol.' Sand was blasting on all sides and they had created themselves a concave shaped arena.

Near Mihawk's square castle, Zoro was on his back fully naked with Luffy's vest draped over. It was between the border line of modest and indecent by the way the vest was on his body. He was sweating all over and his chest rose and fell as he panted. Sand stuck on his arms, hips, thighs, and legs. His knees closed together and the vest wrinkled as he did so. Next to Zoro was Boa Hancock, with her knees close to her body. She had her lips stuck out in a pout.

"W-what happened?" Nago asked the princess since it seemed that the swordsman wouldn't have the strength to talk.

"Luffy and I were making the castle when he heard a yell. He went to see where the sound came from and Mihawk and Zoro were..." she trailed off for a second and returned with a different topic, "Luffy got angry and yelled at Mihawk saying, 'If you want to have...sex you have to get married first idiot!'"

The marine's mouth dropped, "I don't think that's where he's supposed to freak out, but okay...continue."

"...And then he told Mihawk that since he was Zoro's captain he had the authority to say yes and no to the marriage, so..." she glanced over the brawl, "That's how they started fighting...I tried to stop but they are invulnerable against my beam..."

"Ahh..." Zoro grunted, finally awake, "They're idiots."

"You are the idiot! Doing such an obscene activity in the sand!" she shrieked.

"Excuse me, but any of you guys going to finish your castles?"

"When they're done." Boa and Zoro replied in unison. Nago sweat dropped and decided to not stay and wait for the outcome.

Eventually four hours were up and Luffy and Mihawk were _still_ fighting so, obviously, Sir Crocodile passed through the unfinished castles.

Doflamingo greeted them with a sly smile, "Crocie! Welcome!"

"If you call me by that name one more time I am not going to pick yours even if it is astounding." Crocodile snapped.

"Aw Crocie, don't be mean." He led the pissed off judge to the castle walls, "Do you like it?" The castle was the biggest by far with hundreds of tiny towers decorated on top. Around the gigantic castle was a moat, two feet wide a foot deep. The decorations and the balcony resembled a little bit of the Alabasta castle Crocodile wanted to take over, which he distaste now. A few feet away from the castle lay an exhausted marine soldier, dehydrated completely from the sun.

"I don't like it."

"No?"

"No."

"Aw, I feel sad." Although he said this, there was an eerie smile on his face. "Next year I guess."

Crocodile and Nago moved onto the next one which was Gecko Moria's. The castle had Moria's taste. The castle itself had an ominous, cold feel to it which was odd since it was made of hot sand. Spikes jutted out from the walls of the castle and miniature sand skeletons poked through those spikes. Chains in many sizes wrapped around the castle tightly as if to keep it from moving. Carvings of the bats plastered neatly around the walls like wallpaper, the only thing that was cute.

Crocodile grazed his teeth over the cigar, "I like the idea, but...not what I want to have."

"Ah, picky picky picky." Gecko Moria shook his head, tsking, "I should have been the judge."

Jinbei's had added his own taste to his castle also. It looked like a castle fit to a merman king. Surrounding the castle were millions of corals in many shapes and sizes. Sand was carved into shells to indicate the doors and windows. Somehow, Jinbei found some star shaped sand it glittered like jewels even in the setting sun. Too bad the castle was a monotone in color or else it would've stood out.

"Hm, I'll think about it." Crocodile muttered to the other Shichibukai.

After checking all of the sand castles, Crocodile chose Bartholow Kuma as the winner. Not only his was original, it was very livable. The castle Kuma made was all entirely underground with the staircase the only entrance and exit. Within those four hours, Kuma had made over twenty rooms with his high tech laser beam. The walls were supported by the sand above and did not budge when Crocodile or Nago looked around, feeling the walls and furniture.

Kuma got the prize for doing whatever he pleased. He decided to use that free time to relax and read a book, at the Marine Headquarters.

Doflamingo adjusted his shades, "Next year, it's Miporin's turn to think of our annual Shichibukai gathering!"

"...Please don't call me by that name." Mihawk threatened.

**The End**

**Miporin- It looks like this, "****ミポリン" ****A nickname I seen a DoflamingoxMihawk artist use in her comic.  
**


End file.
